he outlined Circe's plot,
then the additions he had concocted. "See why I had to do it?" he asked
finally.

"Yeah. Yes, I see." Jerry blinked. "Would you spray a little sulfaheal
on this hole, Pink? It hurts.... Okay, I give in. I'm with you. It's a
mad notion, but I sure can't better it. I'm with you." He looked at
Circe, who was already busy with sulfaspray and bandages. "But can we
trust this wench, Captain? She could be a wonderful decoy for 'em."

"She's in the clear, Jerry; if we hadn't been so blasted rattled we'd
have realized it long ago. There was a test she could have passed in two
seconds that would have eliminated all this fat-headed suspicion."

"What?"

"Holy Holmendis, boy--_lead_! If she were alien, the touch of lead would
have crisped her up with pain and paralysis." Pink opened the door then,
and the first tide of officers coming to Jerry's rescue were halted at
sight of Circe tending his wound. Pink said to Jerry, and to them all,
"While I was standing in the hall, I took a cartridge out of this
Derringer, and rubbed the lead across the back of her neck. She never
winced. That vouches for her, doesn't it?"

Jerry said, "It does. Heaven forgive us for a pack of drooling
imbeciles! It does indeed."

Circe stood up. She came to Pink and stared him in the face. "So that
was it," she said quietly. "You were testing me. And I thought it was a
caress. Oh, you--" Then she hauled off and smacked Captain John Pinkham
square in the left eye.

It hurt like sin, but Pink could hardly blame her. So he apologized,
without words. He took her in his arms and kissed her soundly.

And Circe kissed him back.

CHAPTER XVII

The _Elephant's Child_ rested on the surface of the asteroid Oasis, a
waterless, airless, cold and gray ball as uninviting as any solid body
in the universe. At the entrance to Air-lock One, the officers stood in
a tight group listening to Pinkham; their spacesuits were fastened on,
only the helmets remaining to be donned; their gloves were the modified
digitmits which enabled the wearers to hold small objects and to operate
machinery or firearms.

There were seven officers, and now three crewmen in spacesuits joined
them. Jerry, whose wound was nearly healed already, thanks to the
sulfaspray, passed out guns from the captain's collection. Each man
carried a handgun, or, in two cases a long rifle. The ammunition for all
amounted to one thousand two hundred and five rounds, in th